by Rick Church, Head Coach, CM Services, Inc. The Association Management Company

Teamwork Tips

I spent last week at the Annual Meeting and tradeshow of one of our association partners. The meeting and show were a success – despite the economy.

Honestly I was a little worried going into the meeting. The leadership has been divisive recently and it was unclear going into the meetings whether they could overcome their challenges. However, at the meeting the association leadership really started coming together. They recognized the importance of working toward a common goal – the association’s mission. Here are some of the reasons I think they are moving in the right direction together now:

1. Leadership Training – we have offered one half day of leadership training twice a year for several years. The training is never the same but is always focused on providing them the tools they need to be effective leaders.

2. A Mission – the association has long had a mission statement. We have focused the leaders on developing annual operating plans with the intent of moving them toward accomplishment of the mission.

3. Cheerleading – every team needs to feel good about itself as a team and every person needs to feel good about themselves as a person. We began cheerleading for the association and its leaders at this meeting and by the end of the meeting, many of the leaders were cheering for each other.

4. Sharing – the leadership spent time getting to know each other personally at this meeting and shared commonalities and differences they have amongst each other. This helped them remember each of them is an imperfect human being.

5. Full Value Contract – this is a new idea one of our staff members found. Essentially the group determined the behaviors they want to uphold as leaders of their industry trade association and agreed to create a “contract” which will be used to hold each other accountable to behaving appropriately. Examples of the behaviors might be: Treat people the way you would want to be treated; or Always listen to and consider others points of view.

These are just some examples of how we can get our teams working together toward a common goal. What ideas can you add to the list?

About Rick

Rick Church is Head Coach of CM Services, Inc. The Association Partnership Company. CM Services pioneered the concept of developing long-term partnerships with national and international trade associations and professional medical associations. Mr. Church has published articles and given presentations about association leaders (both volunteer and paid). Mr. Church served as president of the Association Management Company Institute (AMCi). While on AMCi's Board of Directors, Mr. Church was very involved in the development of the AMCi/ANSI standard for Association Management Companies and the AMCi certification program based on that standard.